Logging


Logging with Horses


Logs on Draught: David Roycroft and Karen Kilshaw email: logsondraught@aol.com Tel: 07811 947878


Tree surgeon David Roycroft has always enjoyed the outdoor life and has been self employed since 1990. He started out as a landscape gardener, a role which involved a considerable amount of pruning and tree felling. This led to the development of the forestry and tree felling side of the business and the opportunity to add logging with horses to his existing business seemed a natural progression and fitted perfectly with his work ethics.


Logging with horses is gaining in popularity, largely due to the ability of the horse to turn tightly without chewing up the ground and causing excessive damage. This means that they can work easily in sensitive areas such as SSSi sites. The ultimate low impact on the environment is particularly suited to woodlands where the general public have daily use and where the use of heavy machinery would


make recovery times much longer. David’s partner Karen has always had a healthy interest in anything to do with animals and the outdoors and has ridden horses for most of her life. She joined David full time in the business in September 2009 after a career in nursing.


After seeing an exhibition by Doug Joiner, Chairman of the British Horse Loggers, Karen went on a week long introductory course to horse logging in 2005 and within 6 months the couple had bought their first horse, a 3 year old Highland pony. After slowly introducing him to logging work their first major display was given


Words and pictures by Ruth Downing Rural Pictures Photography Tel: 07792 281074 www.ruralpictures.co.uk


at the Royal Show when they were asked to stand in for Doug Joiner due to illness. Displays now take up most of the summer months with regular contracted forestry work taking place between October and March. The British Horse Loggers is the governing body for logging with horses and is very much member led. It offers support and advice as well as the opportunity for members to work together on larger products. The couple’s current horse “Bruno” is a Belgian Ardennes, originally imported by a Flemish farmer living in Wales who then sold the horse on to David and Karen. Although trained to do some farm work, Bruno had no


experience of logging but soon took to the job and now works to voice commands quickly and easily. He is also ridden for leisure, appears at pageants and shows and works in harness pulling a


variety of vehicles. Bruno is kept locally at livery and costs no more to keep than the average family pony. The breed is very hardy with broad feet and strong hard hooves and given that much of Bruno’s work is on soft ground he doesn’t need to be shod to work. A normal working day would be 6 to 8 hours maximum, working for 2 hours at a time with a 30 minute break when a high quality ration is fed along with water and hay. The harness used comprises a Field Collar and Hames made by the Amish community and imported from Canada, whilst the breeching and all other equipment is Scandanavian. Native breeds such


as Highlands, Fells, Dales and Heavy Cobs can be adapted to work as logging ponies providing they have the right temperament.


Future plans for Logs on Draught include the purchasing of more equipment such as a Forwarder and Timber Arch which would enable the front end of the log to be lifted off the floor to reduce drag and assist the horse. The addition of another horse is also high on the agenda. David and Karen have recently been approved by the British Horse Loggers to have an apprentice and a placement should be available in the near future. The couple plan to continue with Woodland Restoration Projects and would ultimately like to have their own area of working woodland from which to run experience days, team building courses etc and to promote horse logging through the provision of courses and tuition.


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